Slow Burn
by bellamyandclarke
Summary: (This summary is approximate and liable to change.) Clarke initially misunderstands Bellamy's motivations, not seeing who he really is, while Bellamy has his own preconceptions about girls like Clarke, but can't help but want to protect her and be accepted by her.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of The 100, and I'm grateful to those who do for creating this universe and story. Reading bellarke fanfics has been helping me get through a difficult time in my life, and I hope that my fanfic will bring some enjoyment to people's lives. :)**

...

Her father's death-no, murder-followed by a year in solitary had changed Clarke. Her prior willingness to fight had diminished, replaced by a defeatist sort of resignation. And while during her confinement she had at times felt intensely lonely and longed for company, she now found herself experiencing a far greater than usual sense of discomfort at being in close proximity to so many people in her age group. She especially did not appreciate Wells' presence beside her in the Exodus ship. Clarke had started to wonder if perhaps Wells had gotten himself arrested because he felt guilty about causing her father to be floated, but then she realized that she didn't care why Wells did what he did and that she wasn't about to let go of her anger at him. Her father was dead and unless Wells was going to bring him back to life he would get no forgiveness from her.

She looked around at the other people strapped into the seats of the ship. Naturally all of them were under 18, all of them criminals in one way or another, and apart from Wells it seemed to her that none were members of the elite social class which Clarke belonged to. That realization filled Clarke with a certain degree of unease. There were tensions on the Ark between the social classes, and she suspected that many, if not all, of the others joining her on their probably fatal trip to Earth would justifiably feel some combination of envy, resentment, and perhaps even hatred towards her and even more so towards Wells, the son of Chancellor Jaha. Already she could see some of the others giving her and Wells hostile looks. _Oh well, there is no use worrying about this now. Like as not we will not live long on Earth, and if we do might be Wells will get the punishment he deserves for getting my father killed. _Clarke felt a stab of guilt at that thought, but pushed it down just as she felt the Exodus ship jolt as it detached from the Ark and began its descent down to the Earth.

The monitor switched on and Chancellor Jaha was speaking to all of them, informing them about the military base on Mount Weather that was supposed to contain enough resources for them to survive for some number of years. _For all they know, it's all been taken or contaminated with radiation. I wonder if this is how they justified not giving us any substantial survival gear or resources. We're going down there with little more than the clothes on our back, and not much of those either._

One of the boys unbuckled the straps securing him to his seat and was showing off by doing various maneuvers made possible by the zero gravity environment. _Let's see how cool he'll feel when we enter the atmosphere._ Then, two more boys followed his example. Clarke felt particularly uncomfortable speaking up in this environment, but at the same time she felt a duty to say something all the three boys were endangering themselves.

"Get back in your seats, we'll be entering the Earth's atmosphere soon and you could get hurt without those restraints to secure you to your seats!" Clarke yelled with all the social graces of someone who spent a year in solitary. Naturally they didn't listen, and it was not long before the re-entry began and the floating boys were thrown violently against the walls of the ship. Clarke couldn't see if they were okay, but it seemed like either their flying bodies or the re-entry itself had damaged the ship's systems. Clarke let a small, bitter sounding laugh escape her lips. _It doesn't matter, in all likelihood we'll soon all be dead anyway._

Clarke's whole body felt the Exodus ship's impact with the ground, and she had almost bitten her tongue during the impact. She unclasped the restraints that held her to her seat and made her way to look at two of the three boys who had tried to impress the others with their zero gravity acrobatics. They were dead now. She looked at the third boy, the one who had been the first to start showing off. "Was it worth it?" She asked him and walked off, not waiting for an answer. A crowd started to gather beside the door separating them from Earth. _So here it is. Our long lost home. I wonder how long it will take for us all to die _Clarke thought, all the while hoping the Earth was survivable.

A boy-no, a man stood in front of the door. He was obviously older than 18, and he was wearing a guard's uniform. _Why is a guard here with us?_ Then, suddenly a girl ran to him, screaming "Bellamy!" and threw her arms around him. He lifted her and spun her around, asking her what kind of big brother he would be if he let her go down to Earth all by herself. Clarke heard mutterings in the crowd about how people didn't have brothers and then something about the girl in the floor. _She must be the illegal second child who was hidden for so long._ The girl seemed to have heard the mutterings and became angry, but the man-Bellamy-held her back saying something to her that made her stop. With that he opened the door and Clarke found herself blinded by all the bright, green light that she momentarily had to close her eyes. When she opened them again the floor girl was on the ground, surrounded by green and light while her brother was looking at her and smiling warmly. _So many trees, this must be a forest._ Clarke exited the ship, followed by Wells who started to say something to her.

"Why are you talking to me? Do you think I want to talk to the person who killed my father?" She could see her words had wounded Wells, and briefly felt guilt as she recognized some unfairness in them, but she pushed the thought away. _He deserves to feel pain. _

"Look around us Clarke, we're surrounded by actual criminals who hate us just for who we are. We need to stick together." She saw some truth in that, but wondered if the radiation might kill them before any conflicts with the others had time to arise. Anyway, in the event that the Earth was survivable Clarke intended to keep her head down and wait for the rest of their people to come down. She had a hard enough time socializing with her upper class peers on the Ark-and the year in solitary did not improve her social skills-and she thought that attempting to relate to and befriend lower class delinquents would be a futile effort. She was about to respond to Wells and tell him that he deserved to be hated, when it hit her that something was very wrong.

Clarke took out the map of their landing location that her mother had given her, spread it out on the ramp connecting the inside of the ship to the ground and looked around her. They were supposed to be on a mountain, but they weren't. The place they were supposed to land, the one with all the survival supplies, was to the north of them. She was reluctant to draw attention to herself, but this was about their very survival and Clarke felt like she had no choice but to say something.

"Hey, everyone, listen up!" She tried to speak as loudly as possible while still sounding authoritative. No one seemed to pay attention except the man in the guard's uniform. _His name is Bellamy._

"Is that how you were taught to address your subjects, Princess?" He said, a hint of amusement in his deep voice that carried better than hers, and at the sound of which people started paying attention to their conversation.

"We did not land where we were supposed to land. This is not Mount Weather." She held up her map, and pointed to their current location. "We are here, whereas the mountain is over there." Clarke pointed at the map again, and then pointed at the mountain that peeked through the trees to the north of them. "We have to get moving if we are to reach it by nightfall."

"And why should we do that?" Bellamy asked her.

"Because that's where the survival supplies are, haven't you noticed that we have nothing? We need food, shelter-"

"And you expect us to go and get it for you, don't you? How about the privileged do some work for a change?" The man continued, looking at her and Wells with everyone listening now. Clarke had expected this, but she still found the hostility unsettling. She sighed.

"No, I expect all of us to go and get it for ourselves. To live. Even if Wells and I went there by ourselves, we couldn't bring back the supplies for everyone. Do you want to survive or not?" She looked at Bellamy, and then looked at those who had gathered around them.

"Does it look like any of us are dying?" He asked, clearly not intending to make the trek to Mount Weather, and continued speaking.

"And how do we even know there are supplies there? You may trust Jaha, but I don't. The ship provides us with shelter for now, why should we leave it for something that might not even be there?" Clarke had no answer for him, there was a certain logic to what he was saying. Perhaps staying near the ship was better than hiking through the unknown, likely radioactive forest that lay between them and Mount Weather. Yet, they didn't even have water. She looked hopefully at the others, but clearly they did not find her convincing, and frankly she was not sure she found herself convincing. The only person who seemed to be agreeing with her was Wells.

...

Clarke was used to people listening to what she had to say. Doubtless part of that was due to the status held by her parents, but her peers on the Ark knew-and indeed respected-her own achievements at least as far as her success in education and her apprenticeship under her mother were concerned. She might not have been an outgoing girl, or the sort of girl that boys liked to chase, but she was the girl who everyone expected would follow in the footsteps of her parents and in doing so rise high in the hierarchy that existed on the Ark.

Here on the ground Clarke was out of her element. The other kids tended to be from lower class families, and many of them had committed real, violent crimes. Instead of the respect she had been accustomed to, she was treated with mistrust, resentment, and outright hostility. Clarke could not exactly fault any of the kids for this, as their lives on the Ark were likely harder than her own. And while she had been slotted to follow in the footsteps of her high status parents, their opportunities on the Ark would have been very limited even if they had not committed any crimes. _It would have been surprising if they had decided to follow me._

At the same time, Clarke was not surprised at how it took Bellamy only a week or so to win the attention, respect and even allegiance of many of the others, particularly the stronger and more masculine boys. She was reluctant to admit it, but although he was young she saw in him some of the same same natural leadership qualities that she had seen in her mother and in Chancellor Jaha. However, while Bellamy seemed to have the capacity to inspire many of the others to follow him, he did not seem to be using his influence to help them to survive. She wondered if she should talk to him, but considering the attitude he had towards her, she thought it would likely be pointless if not counterproductive.

One thing that was the same on the ground as it was on the Ark was Clarke's standing amongst girls as far as boys were concerned. Apart from Wells, who was her childhood friend and until his betrayal like family to her, boys tended not to pay much attention to Clarke. It's not that Clarke was unattractive, but whether it was her looks or the way she carried herself she simply didn't draw male attention the way some girls did. On the Ark, it was something she had become accustomed to, and indeed something she had resigned herself to and moved on from-except on those rare occasions when she had a crush on a boy who inevitably failed to notice her.

When she was younger Clarke figured that if she was going to matter and be someone-and there was a time when she wanted to-the way for her to do it was to excel in activities like her apprenticeship. That was then, back when it was important to her to be special, to be better than others. She seemed to have grown out of that. _And about time_, Clarke thought with some degree of amusement, realizing that here on the ground she was not going to be important or special for a good long while, unless being especially resented counted. Eventually, she thought, the rest of their people would come down, and she would be the "princess" Bellamy liked to refer to her as, back on track to become someone in their society. What was a bit stranger to her is that she no longer cared about that, and apart from being reunited with her mother, the main appeal of the rest of the denizens of the Ark joining them on Earth was the arrival of people who were skilled at building a functioning society: the farmers, the engineers, the workers of all types, and even the ruling class. _Right now our society consists primarily of delinquent kids ruled by a leader with a "whatever the hell we want" mentality, and I wonder if that "we" is how our King refers to himself in private._

It was then that Clarke saw Bellamy and his boys taking off their own wristbands and those of others. She couldn't even say she was surprised. Clarke figured Bellamy was power-hungry, and given that it made a twisted sort of sense for him to want to make The Council believe that the Earth was not survivable. After all, if the rest of their people came down he would fall from the top of the society to the bottom, he might even be in trouble as he was not supposed to be on the Exodus ship. She had a brief moment of sympathy for him, but was overcome with rage at the thought of his selfishness and desire for power causing those on the Ark as well as those on the ground to die. They were just kids, most of them lacking the knowledge and experience needed to form a functioning society.

As much as Clarke wanted to avoid drawing attention to herself, she knew she had to stop this. It was the right thing to do, and with that thought she walked toward Bellamy with resolve.

"What are you doing?!" Clarke exclaimed, her voice hoarse with lack of use.

Bellamy didn't answer, he only looked at her, smiling an amused and smug smile. Murphy, Miller, and some of the other bigger, tougher boys Bellamy managed to get to follow him regarded her with hostility.

Clarke raised her voice, she needed everyone in the camp to hear this. "Do you realize why we were sent down to the ground? Do you-"

"To save more resources for royalty like you, Princess." Bellamy interrupted her, putting a certain degree of disdain on the word "Princess".

Clarke noticed a wave of anger rise in the others at that. _I shouldn't be surprised, this is the consequence of rationing._ Unused to talking to such a hostile audience, Clarke decided to ignore them and stick to what needed to be said.

"If they just wanted to save resources, they would have floated us. Do you think they wasted an Exodus ship for fun? Do you even know how many Exodus ships the Ark has?" The doubt on Bellamy's face gave her encouragement. "Oh, but don't you worry, at the rate you're going they will be floating people to save resources."

"What do you mean?" Bellamy asked, uncertain.

Noticing that she now had everyone's attention, and that it was for once not hostile Clarke continued, now speaking to the whole group.

"Life support aboard the Ark is failing, and that is why they sent us here to see if the Earth has become survivable. If you let Bellamy take off your wristbands, the people on the Ark will think we are dying and that the Earth is not survivable. They will begin killing people to stretch life support in the hopes that it will buy them time to fix things. Hundreds will die." Bellamy's face showed shock and something that might have been guilt.

"Oh, and don't think 'royalty like me' will be the ones culled." Clarke added bitterly. "It will be the workers, the ordinary people. Oh, to be sure the 'royalty' will justify it to themselves in terms of importance to the survival of our species or something along those lines, and I would wager they will carry out the killings under the guise of an accident to avoid social unrest, but that is how it will be." At this she turned to meet Bellamy's eyes. "So do you want to become a mass murderer just so that you can be the big shot around here instead of having to defer to those who rule society aboard the Ark?"

Bellamy stiffened at that. Clarke wondered if she had been too harsh as it was extremely unlikely that he had known about the state of life support aboard the Ark, but she could not stop now.

"And it's not only those aboard the Ark that will die, what do you think will happen to us? Look at us! How many of us know anything about surviving down here?" She looked at Bellamy's boys, asking: "Are any of you engineers? Farmers? Do you know how to build structures in which we could survive the winter? Do you even know how cold it will get here in time?" She turned her gaze back to Bellamy. "If you make the Ark think we're dead, you won't just be killing them, you will be killing us." She stopped at that, thinking that surely that would have convinced them. How could it not. Bellamy took a long look at her and began to speak, albeit his voice was less certain now than before.

"Sure you would like it if the rest of them came down, Princess. You would suddenly rise up from a nobody to a high ranking member of society. Your own mother is on the Council, and you look like you've been raised from birth to follow in her footsteps." Bellamy walked past her, looking at and addressing the rest of the hundred. "But how will it be for the rest of you? They said they will forgive your crimes, and assuming they keep their promises, what kind of place in society do you think they will allocate for former criminals? Perhaps they will let you pick up trash after those like her." He looked at Clarke. "Is that the kind of life you want?" He paused, giving them a moment to think. "And it's not as bad as the Princess here is making it out to be. Some of us do have skills", he looked at Monty, "and more importantly we can learn. Hell, perhaps even the Princess and the Prince here can teach us everything they learned while they were being groomed to rule us", Bellamy said somewhat reluctantly while looking at Clarke and Wells. "We can build our own society. It might be harder and take us longer, but it will be ours. We will not be on its margins, relegated to serving the privileged like Clarke." Quite a few people seemed nodding at that and lining up to have their wristbands taken off. Clarke felt like she was losing to Bellamy again, and this was too important for her not to give it all she had.

"Oh yes, I am so privileged that I was kept in solitary for a year to keep me from completing my father's plan to warn everyone on the Ark of the impending failure of the life support systems and the possible need to sacrifice some of the population, and my father was so privileged that they floated him!" Clarke retorted, her voice breaking with emotion. "Part of the reason that life on the Ark was as hard and limited as it was is because of the limited resources available to us there. It is different here. We are on Earth. Look around you! There is enough room for everyone. If this society ends up not being to your liking, perhaps some of you could split off and start your own, and don't you want your friends families aboard the Ark to experience Earth?" Clarke's voice was filled with desperation. "Please don't condemn some of our people to death and others to a meager existence on the Ark when the Earth is survivable!" More people seemed to be listening to her now and clutching their wristbands, while Bellamy looked conflicted and tense, as though he was struggling with himself. Clarke felt that this was as much of a victory as she was going to have, and with that she walked off towards the drop ship where she could be alone.

...

As he watched Clarke disappear into the drop ship, Bellamy looked at the line of people who still wanted to have their wristbands taken off. "We're done for now, go to sleep." He said with a deliberate and authoritative tone to his voice, hoping it would not look like he was changing this mind to take Clarke's side on the issue. In truth, he did not know what to do. Clarke's revelation about the state of life support on the Ark took him aback, he did not mind too much letting a few more generations live their lives out on the Ark before they came down. Sure he felt some guilt at the thought of denying them the opportunity to experience life on Earth, but he steeled himself against such doubts by remembering his mother's face before she was floated, and of the life Octavia had to live, first in hiding and then imprisoned just for being born. He thought that perhaps the inhabitants of the Ark deserved to be denied the opportunity to return to Earth as a payback of sorts for the monstrous system they had all participated in creating. But did they deserve to die? Doubtless some of them-particularly those in power-did, but he knew Clarke was right when she said that they would not be the ones to be culled. It would be people who were like his mother, like him, like Octavia, who would lose their lives while the privileged continued on. And while he did not want to be killed for killing Jaha, he did not think he could live with himself if he condemned hundreds of others to die so that he may live. _I could always leave before they come down. It would be hard, but I could make it. Perhaps I could take some people with me, and we could start our own society free from the influence of the Ark's elite. _He suddenly felt a strange and pressing need to tell someone, to be understood, to be forgiven. He thought of Octavia, but dismissed that thought as he did not want to burden his younger sister with this and a part of him was afraid at how she would react at the knowledge that he killed Jaha. He told himself that he did it for her, and he had, but he was afraid that how she saw him would be permanently changed and not for the better. _I am a murderer._

"Bellamy?" He turned to look at Harper, one of the girls who had been sharing his bed recently. She was undoubtedly attractive, and although he sensed she was not the nicest person, he didn't care. She put her hand on his forearm, and this seemed to draw some jealous stares from a few of the other girls, quite a few of them very attractive. _They would not have noticed me on the Ark, well, at least not unless I had risen high enough in The Guard. _Bellamy thought, but he was not bitter, he figured that it was just the way of things when it came to women. Here on the ground he was a leader of sorts, and that made girls notice him. He wondered how Harper would react if she knew what he was, that he had killed, that he was selfish enough to keep other people from returning to Earth just so that he may live.

"Harper, I did something bad to get down to Earth, and I've wanted to keep those on the Ark from following us down here." Bellamy said.

"Oh? Well that doesn't sound bad." She responded, caressing his forearm. "Hey, do you want to go somewhere more private?" She asked.

"Maybe later." Bellamy responded, disappointed. In truth, he didn't expect much from Harper. He looked past the fire, ruminating on the issues when he saw Clarke standing in the doorway of the dropship. She seemed to be looking in his direction, but not really seeing him. Somehow Bellamy thought she would give him quite a hard time if she knew what he had done to Jaha. He considered telling her, confessing to at least some of it. _I'm being an idiot for even considering this._

...

Clarke stood at the entrance to the dropship, looking over the camp. Her gaze settled on a group of pretty girls around Bellamy, one whom was touching him and she was fairly sure she had been sleeping in Bellamy's tent. She sighed a resigned sort of sigh brought on by an all-too-familiar feeling of not being part of the sorts of activities typically enjoyed by the more outgoing and attractive of her peers. Bellamy's girls were all exceptionally beautiful and sexual, which she supposed was fitting for the sexual partners of the sort of leader of their "tribe", such as he was. _Am I jealous of them? _Clarke wondered. _No, I have no interest in being one of Bellamy's conquests, and his efforts to take off people's wristbands shows that he is power-hungry and selfish to the point of being willing to let people on the Ark die rather than relinquish his new found power and rise in status. _Nevertheless, Clarke couldn't help but feel that a certain part of the human experience was closed to her. She was the serious and responsible type, not liable to be thought of as easygoing. She wondered if males thought of her as too masculine due to her natural instincts to speak up, to take responsibility, and to lead. She certainly could not imagine herself hanging on Bellamy's arm and being submissive to him. _Why am I even thinking of this? _Clarke went back into the dropship.

As she rested somewhat uncomfortably on one of the remaining seats she thought that she should make some effort to make friends. Briefly she wondered if she should make a tentative peace with Wells, but the memory of her father made her blood run hot and she put the thought out of her mind. Wells seemed always to be nearby, she wondered if he was trying to be available to protect her from the criminals if need be as a way to atone for what he did to her family.

She heard footsteps at the entrance to the ship and jumped, all too keenly aware of the presence of rapists amongst the hundred. Clarke immediately looked for a weapon and settled on a fragment of metal with a certain sharpness to it that she knew she could use to do some damage in the right circumstances. She had been an apprentice under her mother and knew where the weak points of the human body were, but she was not under the illusion that she would be likely to win a fight against a man. She was clutching her "knife", her hands sweaty when she saw Bellamy. She relaxed somewhat, as she doubted that the guy who had women throwing themselves at him and who at least made a show of protecting his little sister would rape her. He looked at her, and then he looked at how she was clutching her weapon.

"I'm sorry I scared you." His voice had a sincerity in it that Clarke found surprising. "You know, you really shouldn't be here alone. If I wanted to hurt you that 'weapon' of yours wouldn't have stopped me." Clarke started to think of how she should respond, but Bellamy kept talking. "Why don't you and Wells stick together, aren't you friends? I notice him looking at you a lot."

"Wells and I are not friends." Clarke snapped, in a tone that suggested she was not going to discuss this further.

"Okay, it doesn't have to be Wells, I'm just saying that it's not good for a young woman to be alone down here." Clarke was confused, why was he saying all these things. Why was he even here. She briefly wondered if he might be offering himself as company for her, but dismissed the thought as guys like Bellamy rarely thought of her that way.

"I think I'll take my chances." Clarke said. "Why are you even here?" Before Bellamy could reply, Clarke heard more footsteps.

"Is he bothering you?" A voice called out, and Finn came into view. "You know Bellamy, you already have enough girls, you should leave some for the rest of us."

"It's nothing like that." Bellamy replied. _Of course not, why would he bother with me when Harper is waiting for him by the fire._ Clarke thought. "Nevermind." Bellamy said, and walked off.

"So do I get a thanks?" Finn asked, but did not wait for her to respond. "You know, he's right that you shouldn't be alone here. You're welcome to hang out with Monty and Jasper and I. And you know, maybe we can make the trip to Mount Weather and see if there is anything there for us."

"Thanks." Clarke said, smiling at him and remembering what it was like not to feel alone.

...

_Serves me right for being an idiot, I don't even know why I went there. Why should I care what Clarke of all people thinks of me, and it's not like she would have considered my desire to avoid death for what I did to Jaha a much more noble motivation than the lust for power she seems to see in me. And it's not like I could have trusted her not to tell Wells that I murdered his father. _Bellamy walked back to the fire, his guilt and desire for acceptance and understanding fading and excitement rising at the sight of Harper and one of her shier friends who was looking at him and blushing.

...


	2. Chapter 2

…

Clarke spent the night sleeping in a big tent shared by Finn, Jasper, and Monty. It felt good not to fear for her safety the way she had in the past few days. She left the tent and felt the sun shining brightly on her face. The sunshine blinded her a bit, but she did not mind. She enjoyed the warmth and even felt a little giddy. That was before her eyes fell on Wells. She was was still angry at him, but after Finn included her in his group she also felt bad that Wells was still alone. Not only that, but he was frequently picked on by some of the more dangerous looking boys of the group, Murphy chief amongst them. Wells might have done something horrible and unforgivable, but Clarke did not doubt that the outcome of her father being floated was not what Wells intended when he told her secret. More than that, Wells clearly regretted it, so much so that he risked his own life to come down to the ground with her. Clarke recalled the times they spent together as children, and what a good friend he had been to her before his betrayal. _I no longer want to see him suffer_ Clarke realized, wondering what might have caused this change in her.

"Wells", she called out as she approached him. He looked up at her, hopeful. "Look, I don't know if I can ever forgive you for betraying my trust, I probably never can. But we don't have to be best friends to get along. And I don't like seeing you alone down here." Wells' face lit up at hearing that.

"Thank you Clarke. And I'm truly sorry about what happened to your father."

"I know." Clarke replied, not wanting to have a discussion about that. Thankfully, at that very moment Finn walked up to them.

"Hi, I'm Finn" he extended his hand to Wells. "Will you be coming with us to check out the Mount Weather base your father said was full of resources?" Wells looked at Clarke and agreed.

By this point most people in the camp had woken up and were walking about.

"Who is coming with us to Mount Weather?" Finn yelled. Clarke did not expect many to take them up on his offer, she herself was apprehensive about venturing out into the forest. Surprisingly, Bellamy's sister-_Octavia_-walked up to them.

"Who is 'us'?" She inquired.

"Myself-Finn, but they sometimes call me Spacewalker-Clarke, Wells, Jasper, and Monty, and possibly some, or many, or no others," Finn responded.

"Um, well count me in then, I'm up for an adventure!" Octavia responded to Clarke's surprise and just as Bellamy emerged from his tent, shirtless, with a partially dressed brunette at his side.

"What adventure?" Bellamy asked in a rather stern tone. Clarke would have taken him more seriously if not for the brunette and Harper, who also just emerged from Bellamy's tent and then proceeded to lean against him.

"We're going to Mount Weather!" Octavia said excitedly.

"Like hell you are" Bellamy replied, extracting himself from his female company and making his way over toward his sister. Clarke looked away from his shirtless body as he approached, and he seemed to notice that and smirk.

"I am" Octavia declared as Bellamy approached.

"We don't know what's out there. There could be predators. You're not going." Bellamy said with a finality in his voice.

"What are you going to do, lock me up under a floor? I spent enough of my life being protected, we don't even know how long we're going to survive down here. For all we know we're currently being slowly poisoned by radiation. I'm done hiding and being safe, I'd like to have adventures and live for a change." Octavia's voice was full of emotion, and Bellamy's expression seemed to soften.

"Okay, you can go" Bellamy said, "but I will go as well." Octavia seemed happy at that, and threw her arms around him as she thanked him.

"Murphy, you're with me." Bellamy said to the dangerous looking boy who Clarke noted was one of his more loyal followers.

"We're coming too," Harper stated as she dragged her slim brunette friend along towards them. Clarke was surprised and pleased that so many were going, it was something they should have done a long time ago. However, she was not sure how she felt about Murphy coming along with them. His strength could be an asset if they ran into predators or needed to carry supplies back to the ship, but he also had been giving Wells a particularly hard time and he seemed volatile. Clarke wondered what Murphy had done on the Ark, and suspected it was something violent. She hoped Bellamy would be able to keep him in line.

It was not long before they were all ready. Clarke lead the way, with map in hand and Finn by her side. Jasper and Monty were close behind, joking with each other and making Clarke laugh from time to time. Octavia soon joined them, and Clarke noted that Octavia seemed interested in Finn while Jasper was clearly interested in Octavia. Bellamy and Murphy brought up the rear, with Harper walking between Bellamy and her brunette friend, whose name Clarke didn't know. She was fairly sure she heard Harper make comments about how weird she (Clarke) was, in that she was not feminine and acted like a man. Clarke was not surprised to hear that, as it was something that she wondered about herself in the past. She wasn't sure whether she was hurt by Harper's comments. Frankly, the more she kept hearing Harper insult other girls, insincerely compliment Octavia, and make comments about Bellamy's strength and leadership skills all the while altering her clothes to show off her "assets", the more sure Clarke became that if that's what being feminine meant, then she wanted no part of it.

After some time they came across a lake and decided to take a break. Octavia quickly started stripping, clearly intending to go for a swim. Clarke envied how carefree Octavia seemed, as there was no way she was going to strip in this company. Octavia was down to her tanktop and underwear before Bellamy noticed and looked like he was about to say something. Harper beat him to it.

"Great idea, Octavia!" She said, as she began to undress as well, in a rather more sexy manner than Octavia. Her brunette friend followed suit, and it seemed to Clarke they were putting on a show for Bellamy, who was unsurprisingly watching.

"Going to join us Clarke?" Harper called out to her, her tone of voice was somewhat mocking and Clarke suspected that if Harper's invitation was sincere it was only so that she could look more attractive by comparison to her. Bellamy seemed to turn his attention to Clarke, who ignored them and lay down on the narrow strip of sand beside the lake. She wasn't going to let someone like Harper ruin some of her first experiences on Earth.

"Don't let them get to you" Wells said. Clarke started to respond when she heard Finn shout at them to get out of the water. Harper and her friend were out quickly, as they stayed near the shore where the water wasn't deep. _Probably so Bellamy can best "appreciate them"._ Clarke thought, rolling her eyes. Octavia on the other hand was further in and was suddenly pulled under the water. Everyone was running to the shore at that point, and Jasper of all people had jumped in and began to swim to where Octavia had been seconds before. Finn threw something into the water, at which point Octavia came back up again and Jasper was able to grab her. By then Bellamy was in the water too, pulling both of them to the shore and looking visibly distraught.

Once Octavia was on the shore Harper and her friend ran up to her, and Clarke walked quickly over to them.

"Give me some space so I can take a look at her" Clarke said, noticing that Octavia's leg was scratched by whatever had pulled her under. Bellamy looked at Octavia with such worry in his eyes that Clarke was about to say something to calm him when Harper spoke up.

"What are you a doctor or something?" Harper said disdainfully. It seemed to Clarke that both Harper and her friend wanted to be the one to help Bellamy's sister.

"No, but my mother was and I apprenticed under her back on the Ark", she would have left it at that but she suddenly felt irritated that these girls were letting their desire for Bellamy's attention get in the way of Octavia's well being.

"And you know that you're not actually competing for Bellamy, right? He'll make time for you, and your friend, and probably a few others in turn." _Or at the same time_, she thought. Harper was giving her a look that promised retribution, while Bellamy briefly looked up directly at Clarke, with an expression that she couldn't quite place, before returning his focus to his sister.

Clarke washed the scratches on Octavia's leg with water from her canteen, and then tore off a piece of Jasper's shirt, who seemed all too happy to be the one to have rescued Octavia. Clarke noticed Bellamy watching her intently, he seemed to be waiting for her to say something.

"This looks like a minor injury, and normally it would be. Problem is that whatever scratched her might have also infected her. She will probably be okay, but as we don't have antibiotics I can't say so with certainty. I'm sorry." Bellamy nodded at that.

"Do you think the Mount Weather base might have antibiotics?" Jasper inquired. Before Clarke had the chance to reply, Monty spoke up.

"You know, some of these plants might have antibiotic properties. I should have been paying more attention before, I'm sorry."

"It's okay Monty, you couldn't have known. In retrospect we all should have been paying attention to the plants, but there isn't much we can do about it now. Let's just do better tomorrow." Clarke responded.

"Does this mean we're stopping for the time being?" Finn asked.

"Yes it's probably for the best, we are just over half way there, but it will get dark soon and with Octavia being injured someone would need to carry her. We might as well make camp here, beside a source of fresh water." Clarke responded, half expecting Bellamy to argue with her, but he seemed too preoccupied with Octavia to care. She noticed a distracted Murphy playing with a knife, an angry expression on his face. Harper and her friend seemed to be having some argument about who would sleep where. At that, Clarke got up and announced that she was going to gather firewood. She figured a fire would not only keep them warm but would also keep any possible predators at bay. She briefly glanced at Bellamy's girls, suspecting they would make comments about how mannish she was after she was gone. _And I'm supposedly the "princess" around here._

It didn't take long for her hands to be full of kindling and a few thick fallen branches, and she was about to head back to the beach when she turned and nearly walked into Bellamy, who seemed to also be gathering firewood, though his idea of it consisted of dragging an entire fallen tree back to their temporary camp.

"Showing off for your ladies?" Clarke asked. His jaw stiffened at that.

"Thank you for what you did for Octavia" he said. There was a warmth in his voice when he said that, and Clarke became too keenly aware of his physical proximity to her. She could feel the heat radiating off his body. She took a step back, wondering if he had a different sense of personal space than her.

"I didn't really do much in truth. After all, I'm not a doctor, and when I apprenticed under my mother we had technology that we lack here. I don't want you to think I have skills I don't actually have. But we would have those skills and technology if our people from the Ark were to follow us down. Please, Bellamy, we need them." She wondered if she had overplayed her hand, as while Bellamy had not resumed taking off the wristbands since their exchange they had the previous night, she did not know if that meant he had agreed with her in the end. Bellamy was not saying anything, only looking at her intently. It seemed to Clarke as though Bellamy was about to start to speak but stopped himself. He looked uncertain, and it looked like he was struggling with something. He took a step closer to her, and she once again felt the heat coming off him and it looked to her like he was again about to start to say something and stopped himself. Clarke was not sure what was going on, but the situation was getting increasingly more awkward and she felt she had to say something.

"Look, you don't have to answer now. A lot has happened today and maybe this is a conversation best left for another day." Bellamy seemed to relax at that, although he also looked somewhat disappointed.

"We should get back to the beach, it's starting to get dark." Clarke continued, at which Bellamy nodded and resumed dragging the tree back toward the lake in silence.

By the time they got back the others had already started a fire and there was a fair amount of firewood laid by.

"Oh, there you are, we were starting to wonder if something got you" Monty said.

"And hoping you got something we could eat!" Jasper added while Harper beckoned to Bellamy, clearly wanting him to join her as she had arranged a sleeping space where she would be sleeping beside him. Clarke rolled her eyes and went to check on Octavia, who seemed to be fine if somewhat sore. It was then that Clarke realized how exhausted she was. She needed sleep so badly that she staggered over to where Wells and Finn were sitting and practically dropped down on the ground. She lay on her side, hoping to fall asleep fast, and was frustrated by Harper's talking. Clarke lifted her head to look at in her direction, and found herself feeling a bit of pity for her since Bellamy seemed to be mostly ignoring her, lost in his own thoughts. Clarke drifted off to sleep, only to wake up later in the middle of the night to find that their fire had almost gone out. She wondered what had woken her when she heard the chilling sound of something moving through the woods nearby. She felt a jolt of panic, her heart seemed to almost jump out of her chest. She looked around at the others, they all seemed to be asleep except Bellamy, whose eyes were bright and alert. To Clarke's shock, he held a gun.

…


	3. Chapter 3

…

Clarke woke up to wind gusts blowing sand in her face. The sky was filled with with low hanging, grey clouds and there was a palpable energy in the air. Clarke stood up, wind whipping her hair, the weather making her feel almost elated.

She looked around the camp, Bellamy was shirtless with a girl on either side of him, all three of them were asleep. Murphy was throwing his knife at a log on the ground. He seemed angry. _That one is trouble._ Everyone else was asleep. Clarke walked over to Octavia to take a look at her, as she seemed to be fine Clarke saw no reason to wake her. She walked over to the edge of the lake, looking over the water, feeling the wind gusts hit her and rather enjoying the experience when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Morning," she heard Finn say. "Sleep well?"

"Actually, no. There was something out there in the woods last night."

"Want to go check it out? It likely left footprints."

"Yes, but let's wait for the others to be awake." She looked over at Bellamy, remembering his gun. "Whatever it was may be dangerous."

"What's the matter? Don't trust me to keep you safe?" Finn asked jokingly.

"I wouldn't." The voice was Bellamy's, who stood up, untangling himself from female limbs. Clarke noted the gun tucked into his pants, and let her eyes linger briefly on his body. _He might be a power-hungry asshole, but he does look good._ She kicked herself for thinking that way about him. _It's just hormones. It's not like I'm acting on my impulses. Plus, guys like that don't notice girls like me._

"And you think you would do a better job?" Finn shot back.

"Yes." Bellamy said confidently, patting his gun.

"How did you get a gun?" Finn asked. "And, how did you get on the dropship anyway? Kill anyone with that gun?" Bellamy said nothing, but looked at Finn darkly. _He might have done something bad. It wouldn't exactly be out of character for someone who was just recently trying to make those on the Ark believe we were dying. _

At that point Harper walked up to Bellamy and leaned against him, running her hand down his torso. "He's just jealous that he'll never be as much of a man as you." Harper said to Bellamy, though that seemed to do little to lift the darkness from his face.

"Right, because being violent makes someone more of a man." Wells said as he walked up to them. The look Bellamy gave Wells was strange.

"Hey Guys!" Octavia said as she limped up to them. Bellamy immediately went to her side, helping her stand.

"Is she getting better?" Bellamy asked Clarke. Clarke walked up to Octavia and took a look at her wound.

"Well, it doesn't look like it's getting infected, but she needs to rest, not walk."

"Let's take her back to camp then, and we can try for Mount Weather again after that." Bellamy said with a finality in his voice.

"I understand you want to take care of your sister, but Mount Weather may have supplies we all desperately need." Clarke said.

"Well you can do what you like, but I'm taking Octavia back to camp."

"And what if she ends up needing antibiotics? What then?" Clarke said and Bellamy looked uncertain. At this point Jasper spoke up.

"Monty and I can take her back. We remember the way, and it was safe. We'll take care of her until you return, we might even find some plants with antibiotic properties on the way back. Bellamy did not look happy.

"Look, no offense, but you guys don't exactly look tough."

"I will go as well, Wells said." Wells was tall and well built, and Clarke figured Bellamy couldn't accuse him of not looking tough. She thought Bellamy must have felt the same, as he seemed relieved that Wells offered to go. Clarke felt grateful to Wells for possibly saving their trip to Mount Weather.

"Murphy, you should go as well." Bellamy said. Murphy just shrugged. Clarke didn't like how half of their group was leaving, as that meant half as many people to carry back any supplies they might find. She also didn't like the idea of Murphy being around Wells without Bellamy there to temper Murphy's aggressiveness, but she decided it was best not to argue. Wells could take care of himself in a fight, and it was clear how Bellamy felt about Octavia. The last thing she needed was for Bellamy to decide to go back as well. After all, he was the one who had a gun, and that somehow made her feel safer and more comfortable. _Come to think of it, the way he carries himself reminds me of a member of the Guard on the Ark. _

"Hey, Bellamy, were you in the Guard?" She blurted out, not thinking.

"No." he said, looking at her curiously.

…

_I didn't really lie to her, after all I was just a cadet. _Bellamy recalled with bitterness how then-Lieutenant Shumway emphasized how he was not a guardsman when he had Octavia arrested. He was initially surprised that Clarke had figured that out about him. _Must be something in the way I carry myself, and why am I surprised, back on the Ark royalty like her probably had guys like me guarding her._

Bellamy was reluctant to let the others take Octavia back to camp. He wanted to be there to protect her. At the same time, Octavia's injury made him all the more aware that it was worth it to check if any survival gear might be found in the Mount Weather base, specifically antibiotics which Octavia herself might need. Not only that, but his status as a sort of leader made Octavia safer as well, and coming back empty handed would damage his standing in the eyes of the others. He did not like to think of how things might go for Octavia if another man was the one in charge. Plus, he couldn't help but feel relieved to see Wells go back. _I murdered his father._

Still, it was with reluctance on his part that they parted ways, with Octavia, Jasper, Monty, Wells, and Murphy heading back to camp, carrying Octavia on a makeshift stretcher, and Clarke, Bellamy, Finn, as well as Harper and her friend continuing on to Mount Weather.

Some hours later the wind had begun to pick up, and the clouds took on an ever darker shade of grey.

"It looks like there will be a storm," he heard Clarke state the obvious. "We should look for shelter, or maybe construct one." She finished.

"We should construct a shelter? You mean Finn and I should do the heavy lifting while you watch?" Bellamy retorted. Bellamy thought that most upper class people were averse to physical work, but their women especially so. _Maybe I'm being unfair to her, she gathered firewood earlier while Harper made fun of her for it. _

"Need me to carry anything heavy for you?" Finn asked Clarke.

"I'm okay for now, but thanks." Clarke smiled at him as she said that.

_Pathetic. If we were back on the Ark someone like Clarke would not give any of the guys here a second look. But then again her status is not so high here. Without her social position she is just another girl, and not nearly as pretty as some of the others. _Suddenly Bellamy recalled how Clarke was there to help Octavia and regretted his thoughts. He wondered if he was being hard on Clarke because she was making it difficult for him to do the easy thing and make everyone on the Ark think they were dying. He once again had that strange urge to confide in her, and to be forgiven by her. He felt that her forgiveness, if given, would mean something, and would not be the empty sort of reassurance he might get from Harper or any of the other girls who seemed to have latched on to him down here on Earth the way they never did back on the Ark.

Bellamy noted that the ground was sloping steadily up now. They had reached Mount Weather.

"Hey guys!" Finn called out sometime later, pointing, "is it just me or do those look like caves?"

They made their way there, the wind gusting strongly now. What they found was a few openings in the upward sloping rocky ground. They were not deep, but they would offer sufficient protection from the wind and the rain that they all thought was coming soon. Bellamy worried about Octavia and whether they would have had enough time to reach camp. _I should have gone back with her._

The rain began to fall not long after they settled in the largest of the openings, which was approximately ten meters deep. _Is this even a cave?_ He wasn't sure.

"We should have brought firewood," Clarke said. _She's right, we're lightly dressed and it's getting colder. _

Before long the rain was pouring and the wind was blowing it far into their shelter. They huddled against the back wall, where it was still dry. Harper and her friend were leaning against Bellamy, and he was warm, but he noticed how Clarke was shivering. At that moment he caught her looking at him and their eyes met. She turned away quickly. _She'll get hypothermia at this rate._ Bellamy got up and started taking off his clothes. Harper whistled at him.

"Are you really going to do _that_ in front of me and Finn?" Clarke exclaimed, aghast.

"Actually I'm doing this to keep you warm," Bellamy said, smirking at her as he took a step in her direction and enjoyed watching Finn flush with anger and begin to stand up.

"If you even think of getting close to me-" she stopped when Bellamy stepped outside, wearing nothing but his underwear. He came back quickly, carrying some wood and now shivering himself. _Damn, that rain is cold. I hope Octavia was not caught in it._

Bellamy dried himself off and put his clothes back on, he then started jumping to get warmer while Finn and Clarke were trying to use the wet wood to start a fire.

"It's no use, it's too wet. We'll need to wait a bit for it to dry." Finn said. Bellamy noticed Clarke looking at him with gratitude, and suspected that Finn wished he had been the one to go out to get the wood.

"Clarke, you should move around to warm up." Bellamy said. "I'm almost warm again."

"Can't you tell how tired she is?" Finn objected, and with that he put his arm around Clarke and pulled her against him. _Why is this bothering me?_ After a while Clarke's shivering subsided, and not long after that they were able to get a small fire going. Bellamy was glad when Clarke picked up a piece of charcoal and began to draw on a flat part of one of the walls. He wanted to compliment her on her skill, as she was clearly good at drawing, but Finn beat him to it.

Harper didn't like the attention being on Clarke, and suggested that they play a traditional game called Truth or Dare. _This is childish, but then they are all under 18. _He expected Clarke to object, but it seemed like she was either too tired or childish like the rest of them. _What the hell, why not. _

...


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: Sorry for the multiple re-uploads of this chapter. The site did not seem to be registering that I had updated my story.

…

Clarke was remembering how Truth or Dare worked, curious how this would play out. She wondered if she was being silly to want to play, but it was a game that she knew some of the other kids on the Ark had played and it was something she had felt left out of. She figured she could always refuse anything she was asked to do or reveal if it came down to it. It's not like they were going to float her for not sticking to the game's rules.

There wasn't enough room for them to sit in a circle and remain dry, so they improvised by finding five similar rocks and used the charcoal from the fire to mark one of the rocks as the asker's rock and another as the responder's rock. The idea was for them to then draw these rocks from Harper's pack.

On the first draw Harper drew the asker's rock and Bellamy the responder's. He chose "dare".

"Kiss me like you mean it," Harper said, all confidence. _Why am I not surprised._ Clarke wondered if she would be kissing anyone. _It will be Finn if anyone, I doubt either Harper, her friend, or Bellamy will be daring me to kiss Bellamy. _Then she realized that Bellamy might ask her to kiss one of the girls and cringed. _I guess I could always choose "truth", though I wouldn't mind kissing Finn. _Her thoughts were interrupted when Bellamy stood up and walked up to Harper. Clarke couldn't help but look. She had never kissed anyone, and couldn't help but be curious. Bellamy extended his hand to Harper, which she took while looking up at him. He effortlessly pulled her to her feet, and pressed her against the rock wall behind her, at once taking both of her wrists in one of his hands and pinning them over her head. He kissed her for a long while, his free hand roaming along her body. Clarke couldn't help but get chills watching them. She suddenly felt lonely. Then Bellamy broke away from Harper, his breathing heavy and ragged, and for some reason for a brief moment he looked directly at Clarke.

The next draw had Harper draw the asker's rock again, and her friend drew the responder's rock. Her friend seemed excited at that, and chose "dare". _I bet she is hoping to be asked to kiss Bellamy._ That was not forthcoming however, as Harper dared her to re-enact the most embarrassing moment of her life. The girl was staring daggers at Harper. _Harper is a bitch even to her friends._ Clarke had no particular desire to watch someone embarrass themselves so she rested her head on her knees and waited for it to be over. Soon it was time for the next draw.

Harper drew the asker's rock yet again, and this time the responder's rock was Clarke's. _She is always the first to draw and she must know what the asker's rock feels like. Cheater._ Clarke was not going to give Harper the satisfaction of making her do something embarrassing, so she chose "truth".

"Okay, tell us about everything sexual that you've done with boys, whether kissing or more." Harper asked, smirking. _She thinks this is an embarrassing question. _Clarke smiled to herself, she didn't care if they knew she had no experience.

"I haven't done anything with anyone." Clarke said matter-of-factly. Harper seemed disappointed by her lack of reaction.

"What, no one was good enough for Your Highness?" Bellamy asked in a surprised tone. Clarke noted that Harper was not too happy at the idea that Bellamy thought her reason for a lack of experience with boys was her supposed pickiness rather than undesirability. She smiled.

"I don't see the asker's rock in your hand, so I don't have to answer that." Clarke said to Bellamy, enjoying the moment. But then she realized that if Harper got the asker's rock again, she would probably ask whoever was on the other side of that to kiss her. _I could always refuse. This is just a game._ The rain seemed to be stopping by then anyway, so Clarke didn't expect for the game to continue much longer.

"I think someone else should be the first to draw now. Harper is always drawing the asker's rock and I doubt that's by accident. In fact, maybe Harper should draw last this time so that she can't cheat," Clarke said as Harper glared at her.

This time it was Harper's friend who drew the asker's rock, with Bellamy once again drawing the responder's and choosing "dare". Clarke wasn't sure if he chose dare to be asked to kiss the girl, or if he wanted to avoid having to answer questions about himself. Suddenly she wished she could use this game to ask him how he got on the dropship. _Wishful thinking. Game or not, he would be unlikely to answer that._

"Get ready for another makeout session," Finn said to Clarke.

The girl looked at Harper, and then said something totally unexpected. "Bellamy, I want you to kiss Clarke _like you mean it_." Clarke's heart jumped, and she stood up instinctively. Harper looked livid, her friend looked at Harper and smiled. Clarke looked at Bellamy with apprehension as he got up and walked towards her. He leaned close to her, placing his hands on either side of her. His face was inches away from hers now and to Clarke's surprise he seemed nervous. Clarke looked at Finn, who looked unhappy and was about to say something when Bellamy spoke.

"We don't have to do this Princess, it's just a game. If you want your first kiss to be special, I'm sure we will all understand." Bellamy's voice was gentle, yet his tone was such that it was clear that he would not tolerate objections from the others. _Is he being nice to me, or does he just not find me attractive enough to kiss?_ Clarke looked at Finn, who seemed relieved. Then she looked at Harper, who seemed even more relieved than Finn. Clarke was about to take Bellamy up on his offer, but Harper's relief awoke something in her and changed her mind. Clarke wanted to give Harper a taste of her own medicine.

"Actually, it's fine. I wouldn't mind some privacy though. The rain is quite light now, and there were other shelters near this one." Clarke was surprised at herself. _I am not being myself, but I don't care._ The look on Harper's face only strengthened her resolve. At that point Bellamy stepped away from Clarke and extended his hand to her, looking at her with an intensity that made Clarke's heart beat faster. She swallowed and took his hand, surprised how warm it felt, and together they walked out into the light rain.

…


	5. Chapter 5

…

Bellamy led Clarke outside, the rain falling on them. They walked into an adjacent shelter, this one considerably smaller than the one they had shared with the others. By this point Clarke was having second thoughts. _What am I doing?_ She let go of Bellamy's hand, surprised to find herself missing its warmth.

As she let go of his hand, Bellamy turned back to look at her.

"Are you still sure you want to do this?" He asked, Clarke remained silent, uncertain. He was a physically attractive man, but he was not a good man, and more than that he was not _her_ man. Bellamy broke the silence.

"I'm not what you had in mind for your first experience with a man, am I?" He didn't sound like his usual cocky self.

"It's just that-" Clarke began to respond.

"No, I get it. Back on the Ark someone like me would be invisible to someone like you."

"Bellamy, stop. It's not that. I'm not the snob you seem to think I am. And don't think I saw no fault with the social system on the Ark. It was unfair." Bellamy looked at her as she continued.

"It's just that, I think I went for this whole kiss thing because of Harper. I hate to admit it, but she was getting to me. I don't know if I want my first experience to be with someone I know little about and have no connection with. And admit it Bellamy, you're not the nicest person. What you were doing with the wristbands, it was selfish, it was wrong."

"I didn't know about problems with life support on the Ark. You haven't seen me trying to take off any more wristbands, have you?" _That's true, he had stopped._ She was surprised at the need in his eyes as he looked at her.

"You were still willing to deprive the rest of our people of a chance to live on Earth, all so that you could be in charge." Clarke retorted, not seeing the pain on his face.

…

Bellamy wanted so desperately for Clarke to understand. He needed to be on the dropship to protect his sister, she had been his focus in life. It was his fault that she was found. He couldn't let her go down to Earth alone. He didn't want to kill Jaha, but he had no choice. It was the only way for him to protect Octavia, and he would do anything for her. He wanted Clarke to know that about him, to understand, to tell him that she would have done the same in his place. He needed to be forgiven for the murder he believed he committed.

And he wanted her to see that it wasn't lust for power that had driven him to try to make those still on the Ark to think the Earth was not safe. Part of the reason he wanted power was so that he would be in a better position to protect Octavia, but more than that, he had been afraid of what those on the Ark would do to him when they came down. Even so, he stopped taking the wristbands off once he learned that his actions might cause people to be killed. He wanted her to know that about him.

"You don't understand, I did something to get on the ship. Something terrible." He started, clumsily.

"Is this supposed to make me think better of you?" Clarke asked coldly.

_This is not going well._

"I didn't want to, but I had to. To protect Octavia. I would do anything for her." She seemed to be listening to him now.

"What did you do?"

Bellamy wanted so desperately to tell her, but he hesitated. _I can't tell her I killed Wells' father. He is her childhood friend. He is here. She will tell him._

"Something very bad, let's just leave it at that." He said, hoping it would be enough.

"Look Bellamy, it's hard to know what I should think of you when you say so little. I believe that you would do anything to protect your sister. I can see that. But I also see how much you enjoy power, and the things that come with it, like the girls for one. I saw how you were kissing Harper earlier. That was not to protect Octavia." _Is she right? Maybe I do enjoy it. But is that so wrong?_

"And you know what, you have natural leadership qualities, the same qualities I've seen in the leaders on the Ark. You're resourceful, you're strong." Bellamy beamed at that. Coming from her that meant a lot.

…

"Are you sure you don't want to go through with that kiss?" He asked. Clarke rolled her eyes.

"I haven't finished. You are all that, but you could be using your influence to help us build a society, to help us survive. How much of that have you done? You sure do enjoy female company though." He was silent.

"Now I am finished." Bellamy started to say something when the rest of the group joined them. Clarke looked outside and noticed that the rain had completely stopped.

"So, did Bellamy give you everything you wanted in your first kiss?" Harper's friend asked gleefully, while looking at Harper.

"No. He could be better." Clarke replied, leaving the girl confused.

As they resumed their journey, Finn walked up to Clarke. She appreciated his presence.

"You didn't really kiss him, did you?" Finn asked after some time.

"No." Clarke responded, pleased that he was interested.

"Good, you deserve better than him." Finn said. Bellamy stiffened at that, but Clarke didn't notice.

…


	6. Chapter 6

…

They were not walking long when all of a sudden Clarke screamed. A spear was lodged in her thigh. She heard a gunshot. Everything happened so fast. They were all scrambling then, hiding behind trees, rocks, and anything that was available. Finn acted fast when he picked Clarke up in his arms and carried her behind a tree.

_Oh my god that is a spear. A spear! _Clarke's mind was racing. They were not alone. Something-no, someone was out there and they were hostile. She waited for them to come, she waited for more spears.

Nothing happened.

They all waited longer.

Nothing happened.

_Where are they? Where are they?_ Then she heard Bellamy's voice.

"The gunshot might have scared off whoever that was. On my count we will all run back to the rock shelters. Being out in the open is obviously not good for us. Clarke, can you walk?"

"No-" she started to say, when Finn spoke up.

"I will carry her."

And so they ran, Clarke clung to Finn, dizzy from the blood loss and the pain. She expected more spears as they started running, but none came, and soon they were back in the place where they only recently played a childish game. It seemed so long ago now.

_Did I just pass out?_ Clarke opened her eyes to see Bellamy kneeling beside her, tying something above the spear in her thigh. He noticed that she was awake.

"Clarke?" He placed his hand on her cheek and turned her towards him. "Clarke, are you conscious?"

"Yes. Did I bleed a lot?" She looked at Finn, who had some blood on him.

"I don't know. Tell me what to do, you're the one with the medical training." Bellamy's voice sounded urgent.

Clarke passed out again. When she came to she was leaning against Finn. She saw wisps of smoke rising from the remnants of a fire, and she saw Bellamy looking out of the entrance, gun in hand. He looked so focused. She looked at her leg, the wound had been cauterized. She started to ask who had done that, but her mouth was so dry and all that came out was a moan.

"Clarke!" Finn exclaimed. "Here, have some water."

"How long was I out?" She asked.

"Too long." Bellamy said. "It's going to get dark soon, and I won't be able to see them coming. I don't have enough bullets to afford to miss."

_Now I'm sure he must have been a guard on the Ark, or at least had some training as one, it's written all over him. _

"Who cauterized my wound?" Clarke said, trying to move but crying out with pain.

"I did." Bellamy said. "You were passed out and bleeding, it was all I could think of doing."

"Thank you." Clarke said. Bellamy simply nodded. Then he continued.

"We must get moving. We can't give whatever it is time to organize and come at us. We shouldn't have stayed here as long as we had." He looked at Clarke, and she realized that they had stayed there for her.

"I will carry Clarke." Finn said. Bellamy simply nodded again. And they set off. Clarke felt the warmth of Finn's body and was grateful to him for carrying her. _Something is down here with us. People. It must be people. How is that possible?_

She noticed how tense and alert Bellamy was initially, how he kept looking around, his gun at the ready. After some hours of nothing happening he seemed to relax. _It doesn't look like whatever speared me is following._

They were moving slowly now, with Finn breathing heavily. _He's carried me for too long, he's tired. _Bellamy seemed to notice too.

"I'll carry her," he said.

"No, I can do it." Finn insisted.

"No, you can't. We're slowing down because you're tired." Bellamy walked up to Finn then, his gun in his waistband now, and took Clarke from him. It felt strange to Clarke to be in Bellamy's arms, but she felt too weak to give it much thought. She seemed to have passed out for a while again, and when she came back to Bellamy was still carrying her. He seemed stronger than Finn, it was as though carrying her was no great effort for him. She clasped her hands around his neck. He was sweating a fair bit, but she didn't mind. _He smells good._

"Awake again?" He asked her, and handed her his flask. She took a gulp of water.

"Thank you for carrying me, and for taking care of my wound." Clarke said, sincerely grateful to him. He had likely saved her life.

"No problem princess, what kind of a civilization will we build if we let half our royalty die? And who knows how Wells fared. You could have eaten less back on the Ark though." He smirked at her and she heard Harper giggle. _Is he saying I weigh too much? _Suddenly she wished Finn were carrying her again.

...

He felt her tense at his last comment. _Well that was dumb of me, should have figured that she would be sensitive about her weight like all the rest of them._ Bellamy actually really liked the way Clarke's body felt against him. And carrying her was no effort to him, he had a lot of practice with Octavia.

"Relax, I was kidding." She said nothing. He was trying to think of something else to say when they came to the beach where they slept, where Octavia was attacked. _They must have been watching us then._

...

"We have to keep going, he said to the group. I don't think it's safe for us here."

"It's getting dark," Finn said, "are you sure we can find our way back?"

"I think so, but it is a risk. We might get lost. Still, I think whoever attacked Clarke might have been in the woods watching us. We can't stay here." Bellamy kept moving. Clarke was surprised by how tireless he was. Harper and her friend were clearly tired even though all they were carrying was their packs.

As night started to fall so did the temperature. Clarke was shivering. She felt Bellamy press her closer against him. She was wondering if he did so intentionally when Harper started complaining about how tired she was and how they should rest a bit.

"Okay, but not more than half an hour, and no fire." Bellamy said. He seemed more comfortable now. _He must think we're not being followed, or maybe he is tired himself and is not letting on. He has been carrying me for so long. _

It was so dark that Clarke couldn't see the others, but only hear them sit down. Bellamy sat down carefully with his back against a tree, still holding Clarke. He rotated her body so that she leaned against his back. She began to move away from him, but he wrapped her arms around her.

"Don't be silly," he whispered, "you're so cold." Clarke was too tired to fight, she leaned back into him, finding his warmth relaxing, but Bellamy was still speaking. "It's not like I'd need to resort to tricks to get a girl to lay against me, I just don't want you to get hypothermia on top of your wound." _Ugh. He is so full of himself._ She would have said something, but she really was too tired for it. _And he is so warm._

…

_And there she goes again._ Bellamy thought as Clarke passed out again. She often gave him a hard time when he was awake, but lying here unconscious, hurt, and shivering she was so vulnerable. Bellamy was surprised by his urge to protect her.

…

When Clarke woke up it was Finn who was carrying her now. She saw Bellamy walking behind them with Harper at his side. Ahead she heard the sounds of teenagers. _We're back. We made it._

…


End file.
